Article October 19, 1907 Issue

THE STUDENT OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

ELMER GREY

There are many things about Christian Science which the student may not at once understand. A similar statement, however, might be made by many earnest and intelligent followers of other religious denominations concerning their faiths. Probably few religious teachers of our day are more widely known than is Dr. Lyman Abbot, yet here is what he writes along this line: "Do you ask me if I can reconcile all the facts of life with the affirmation that the 'infinite and eternal Love? I answer frankly, I cannot. There are many things in life that seem strange, mysterious, ... inexplicable to me. There is much I do not understand. I can see but a little way before me; but I believe with all my heart that God is what Christ portrayed Him to be—Love; and that what I cannot understand here I shall understand better in the great hereafter."

With like frankness I will say that I cannot yet reconcile all the facts of so-called material existence with Christian Science; but I do say that of life's hard problems I can understand more by its means than by means of any other religious faith of which I know. There are those who profess to believe in a loving God; yet they seem to think that He has inflicted sin and sickness upon the world. They profess to believe in but one God; yet when the question of sin comes up they frequently talk as though they thought there was also another power, namely, evil. They profess to believe in an omnipotent, ever-present God, yet when things go wrong with them physically they do not trust Him, but run for a material remedy.

I know that Christian Science corrects these inconsistencies by teaching that there is but one good,—God, who is the only creator,—and hence sin and sickness, though seemingly real, must, in fact, be negative conditions, not realities; that because God is omnipotent and ever-present it is to Him only we should appeal when discordant physical conditions manifest themselves, and I know that Christian Science buttresses this teaching with the eloquent fact that in this manner, and in accordance with such views, thousands have been and are continually being healed of physical and moral disease. I came into the study of Christian Science as the result of having been thus healed, and I am continuing in its study because it seems to me to be the most reasonable, most correct, and most satisfying system of Christian living and Christian philosophy of our day.

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